The power of music and song brought joy and happiness to our school today and enhanced our community spirit today. It connected us with schools around Australia and we combined to make history as we celebrated “Music count us in” 10th year anniversary.

600,000 students from more than 2,500 schoolssame song, same day, same time.

2,500 schools participated to make this year’s event successful whilst raising awareness about the importance of music education in schools.

The power of music could be felt and heard all around our little school today as the children celebrated and sang “Let it Play” with gusto and conviction.

The incentive was developed in 2005 as there was a need to promote and give each student access to music education. This interactive and collaborative learning space has grown over the years and so many students now have access to music education.

Maybe your school can participate in “Music count us in” next year. To find out more about the program and how you can join in click on the website link.

Albert Einstein said “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind”.

This leads me to consider the fundamentals of education. A fundamental means a principle on which something is based. So the main principle of education, in my mind is to develop creative and imaginative thinkers.

How do we achieve this?

We can achieve this by creating learning spaces that allow them to explore and develop their personal and liminal spaces. This exploration leads to “aha” moments and achieves the fundamental of education that Einstein supported “the training of the mind to think”.

When we reflect we question what have we just been through. As I reflect on the learning spaces we can try to achieve in our school as we re build I want to consider what we have been through and where we want to go.

The six learning spaces for our school to consider included the e-space, the collaborative,group and co operative, beyond the classroom, the classroom and the school and the two that bookmarks them; the liminal and the personal.

The liminal and personal are mentioned here as bookmarks as they are the important ties that bound the others. As an educator, I think these two spaces are ones which I will take into my classroom.

I will expose my students to the liminal and guide them as we venture and curate our liminal spaces together and separately. I will facilitate them to develop their personal learning spaces. I will allow their personal learning spaces to become part of our classroom and school learning spaces.

The war in Syria has displaced more than 200000 men,women and children. The implications this has on the children’s education and future learning is something that we all need to be aware of. The photo above depicts the learning space of a makeshift school for refugees as they are schooled in Lebanon. They face language barriers and a lack of appropriate education facilities. This alone leads to isolation. Most Syrians refugee’s education IS interrupted as they leave school in alarming numbers.

In Australia, we have never had to consider this plight. Our children can enjoy the opportunities education brings.

Why should Syrian children not be afforded this same right?

When education is interrupted hope fades, dreams are lost and futures become hopeless. This doesn’t have to be the case for refugees around the world. As educators we can do our bit to brighten the light of hope so dreams are found and futures are re claimed.

HOW CAN WE HELP FROM AUSTRALIA?

Google cardboard… This ingenious piece of technology can help connect Syrian students to our education systems. With the use of google cardboard and a mobile phone (REMEMBER What’s in our bag? most refugees have access to a mobile device), students can create, publish, photograph,film,share and connect through technology.

I have ordered one to use and experiment with in my classroom…Watch this space to see what we can use this in our classroom and school learning space and how can we connect to Syrian students and share our educational experiences from the other side of the world?

Visit google cardboard website to buy your own or just explore the possibilities.